George Russell shows true colours in first words after Belgian GP disqualification

Russell finished first in the Spa-Francorchamps race having opted for a bold one-stop tyre strategy while most other stopped twice. That included team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who was closing in the final stages but wasn’t able to get past the other Mercedes.

Russell celebrated wildly in parc ferme and beamed as he took to the podium to collect his trophy. But it soon emerged that FIA checks on his car had discovered a problem – it was underweight, which is a breach of Formula 1 technical regulations.

After reviewing the matter, the stewards disqualified Russell from the race. Hamilton instead inherits the win, while for his team-mate the wait goes on for a third career victory – although his first reaction to his punishment shows he believes it will not be long before it comes.

In a social media post, he wrote: “Heartbreaking… We came in 1.5kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race. We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first. There will be more to come.”

Russell’s tyres were more than 30 laps old when he took the chequered flag and so would have lost a lot of their original rubber by the time he made it back to the scrutineering area. Team principal Toto Wolff thinks that could be why the car failed its checks and expressed his sympathy for his driver.

The Austrian said: “It is what it is and we have to learn from that. As a team there are positives to take but, for George, it is a massive blow – a driver with childhood dreams of winning these races, and that has been taken away… A mistake has happened.”

Regulations require a car, including its driver and the tyres, to weigh a minimum of 798kg when checks are carried out at the end of a race. In the official FIA decision document, the stewards noted that the Mercedes had been under that threshold by 1.5kg.

A statement read: “Car 63 [Russell’s] was weighed on the FIA inside and outside scales with both scales showing the same result of 796.5 kg. The calibration of both scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor.

“During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly. The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.”